On Wednesday, 20 September 1967, Celtic’s defence of their own European title commenced with the visit of Russian champions Dynamo Kiev to Glasgow. Celts had eliminated Kiev from the European Cup-Winners’ Cup the previous January – you may recall the infamous midnight Friday training session ahead of the following day’s clash with Willie Wallace’s Hearts at Tynecastle – and were favourites to do so again. The omens were good, Jock naming the Lions for the seventh time and the referee being Kurt Tschenscher of West Germany, as in Lisbon.
It would be clear early on that tonight would be different gravy, goalscoring hero Tommy Gemmell stumbling to allow Pusach to stun the champions within four minutes, that lead doubled by the half-hour by Bychevetz, following a rare mistake by captain Billy McNeill. Bobby Lennox would restore some hope of an unlikely Hoops comeback, by pulling a goal back on the hour, however, the Russians would eventually hold out to inflict a first-ever home defeat in European competition for Celtic. This was most definitely not in the script.
The return leg will mainly be remembered for a catalogue of controversial decisions from the Italian referee, Antonio Sbardella. On the hour, he took great umbrage at Bobby Murdoch’s reaction to the award of an innocuous free-kick against him, issuing the midfielder with a second caution before ordering him from the field.
Despite that setback, Lennox again came to Celtic’s rescue, netting at the far post from a near-impossible angle within minutes of Murdoch’s dismissal. And when John Hughes appeared to score a vital second away goal soon afterwards, after a howler from Russian keeper Bannikov, all Celts efforts looked to have paid off.
Incredibly, Sbardella blew up for a non-existent infringement. In the dying seconds, that man Bychevetz again found the target, the cup-holders sent tumbling out at the first hurdle.
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